Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Pinnacles and Oak Trees

April 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pinnacles tower above a grove of oak trees, Pinnacles National Park

I made this photograph in the late afternoon on the March day when I returned to Pinnacles National Park for the first time in quite a few decades — since before it was a national park! I had arrived early in the morning, when few others were yet there, and loaded up my camera pack to hike up to and along the High Peaks Trail, and impressively narrow and exposed route along a ridge and among the huge rock formations that give the park its name.

Exhausted (I carry a lot of photography gear!) I arrived back at the trailhead in the middle of the afternoon and decided it was time for a snack and a nap. That, by the way, is not an uncommon plan among photographers, who often find that the light at this time of day can be less than inspiring, and a typical day may start with very early photography, end with very late photography, and include some down time in between. As early evening approached I loaded up once again and headed down a nearby canyon that passed by more of the formations, stopping here for a photograph that includes three of the main spring icons of this area: the impossibly green new grass, oak trees, and the rock formations.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge

April 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A group of trees growing on a snowy ledge below Glacier Point

Near the end of February I made a more-or-less annual winter visit to Yosemite Valley. (Not my only time to visit in winter, but I’m often there around the final weekend of this month, during the last few years to attend the opening of the annual Yosemite Renaissance exhibit.) This gave me a few days to photograph in the Valley during winter, which may be my favorite season there — when clouds can ring the Valley and, if I’m lucky, I might catch some snow.

I made this photograph on a very cold morning, photographing from an open meadow location below the face of Glacier Point, where granite ascends abruptly from behind what I’ll always think of as Camp Curry. I went to the meadow before dawn, with a plan to photograph this wall in shadow and then as the first light began to slant across it from the east. This cliff is a cold place this time of year — most of the time in shadow, dusted with snow, and with frozen water everywhere. The blue-tinged shadow light only increases the effect in this scene of a small group of trees managing to eke out an existence on an angled rock ledge.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dormant Trees, Granite

March 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A granite cliff towers above dormant trees along the Merced River, Yosemite Valley

Winter can produce a softer and subtler Yosemite Valley, one that can sometimes be just a bit tricky to photograph. Perhaps the most obvious subjects in the winter are found on days when there is snow, or when storm clouds and mists shroud the cliffs and ridges. As a matter of fact, those are the things I’m usually hoping to find when I visit the Valley at this time of year.

But the true nature of the Valley in winter includes some subtler subjects, sometimes nearly devoid of the greens of spring and summer or the colors of fall. Truth be told, the meadows are brown and trees lose their leaves, the clouds can block or filter the light, and many sections of the surrounding cliffs can be in shadow. This photograph is such a scene — winter dormant trees along the banks of the Merced River, brown meadows underneath and stretching beyond, and the steel-gray colors of shadowed granite above.

Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

21 Choices

March 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Pasadena street corner on a winter afternoon

To some extent, although I’ll write a bit about it, this is one of those photographs that you’ll need to sort out for yourself. It may seem like a snapshot, or it may seem like something else, or it might seem like both.

Just after New Years Day we went to Southern California for a few days, driving down the Coast Highway (before the winter storms closed it) and then visiting areas at the northern and southern ends of the Los Angeles Basin. We stayed in Pasadena, a place I hadn’t visited for a while and one that I don’t know all that well, aside from the typical Californian’s knowledge of a place that comes from driving past on freeways. Because we had some unscheduled time we ended up wandering in downtown Pasadena a bit, and I had time to begin to get a bit of a feeling for the place, at least as it is in mid-winter light of the sort in this photograph.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: usa

Pinnacles and Oak Trees

Trees, Snow-Covered Ledge

Dormant Trees, Granite

21 Choices

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.